Tag Archives: restorative yoga

Judith Hanson Lasater and her daughter, Lizzie Lasater, have been on the podcast separately before. On episodes 64 & 65 I focused on their backgrounds and on the mother-daughter connection. This time, I wanted back up and simply ask the question, “Why restorative yoga?” Why now? And why isn’t “regular” hatha yoga restorative enough? One response, in particular, surprised me — seeing restorative yoga as a radical act of self care in a society that’s so filled with aggression and violence.

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How can you get the most from your restorative poses? That’s a question that Roger Cole and I explore on this episode.

Roger Cole is an internationally recognized, certified Iyengar Yoga teacher who has been teaching since 1975. He is also an accomplished scientist educated at Stanford University and the University of California, with specialties in the science of relaxation, sleep, and circadian rhythms.

In this interview, Roger explains how to use the Baro Reflex to maximize relaxation in restorative yoga poses. As he puts it, there is not one single system that is responsible for relaxation — in yoga classes, we often focus on the nervous system. But, if you “gang up a lot of factors that promote relaxation,” you’re more likely to go deeper and feel more restored afterward. We also talk about that time he took B.K.S. Iyengar to a lab and tested his breathing (with interesting, if imperfect results), and a possible reason that inversions promote relaxation.

Scroll down for the videos we mention in the interview and photos of Roger’s Shoulderstand and Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Supported Bridge Pose).

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Lizzie Lasater teaches the pleasure of deceleration through Restorative yoga workshops and digital trainings. Lizzie is the daughter of venerated yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater, so I was keen to pick her brain about how yoga was (successfully! without rejection!) passed onto her.

Lizzie also offers great tips for incorporating Restorative Yoga into everyday life. And, as she’s witnessed both of her parents growing older and benefitting from lifelong yoga and meditation practice, Lizzie talks about the importance of taking the longview with asana practice.

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You might know Rachel Brathen as “Yoga Girl” on Instagram — she’s one of the original yoga insta-stars and has 2 million followers. Two million! That’s crazay! And yet, despite this quick rise to fame, Rachel is incredibly down-to-earth and not afraid to say that the superficial side of social media can suck the life out of a person from time to time. I wanted to know what makes Rachel tick, so I tried to dig into how she’s become the teacher (and student) she is today.

Rachel and I talk about:

* How a 10-day Osho meditation retreat changed the course of her entire life * Her initial yoga practice, which was therapeutic and aimed toward healing debilitating back pain * How pregnancy is changing her practice * Why she has never started hocking products like yoga pants for other brands * Whether or not she considers herself to be fearless * The ingenious model behind her 109 Global Mission trips * Her surprising advice for navigating social media as a yoga teacher

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Andrea Ferretti and Jason Crandell are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized vinyasa yoga teacher. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 5. To find out where you can train with Jason live, check out the Schedule page.